NEW BLOG!!!!

I have made a new blog for my Garden/Farming schpeal ...

Gargoyle Garden

run and check it out .... it won't have political stuff on it unless its farming/gardening related ...

honest.

getting a new idea

so we've got a dvd-r ... well another one, the cheap $64 one we got before christmas to replace the one that was giving us troubles we discovered isn't compatible with the cable box so we had to get another ....

and hubby signed us up for dvr on the cablebox, but I'm paranoid that some of the shows I really like - like "Mystery!" and some of the serials - will be auto-deleted to make room for some of the other programs so I've figured out how to throw them onto a dvd ... hey they are fairly cheap so I can pitch out the recorded disk and not feel guilty (unlike buying the dvd sets for $40 or so).

But while looking for some info I found that there isn't anything on imdb.com about many of the spells & things that are used on the show. so it got me thinking....

With the free pages I can make on blogger -- I can make my OWN Bewitched website ... where I can put the incantations used to call Dr. Bombay, some of his wacky cures, the amazing campaigns that Darrin gets thru Sam's help, the Spells other witches use (like Endora, Serena, Aunt Hagatha, Esmerelda, Maurice, Uncle Arthur, etc), or even magical items ... how about some magical creatures or historical characters that show up??

oh this could be fun!!

But it might interfere with my other blogs -- and I might not be able to keep up with it all. and I think if hubby catches me doing one more blog .... he is going to cut off my internet.
Can I really risk taking on yet another blog? I can't keep up with all the ones I have right now -- in fact I've got a couple I haven't updated in months.

hmmm.

before I jump in with both feet I'm going to have to hold off for a while ... think it over really well.

What is it about blogs ...?

Since I've joined Ravelry, I have been directed to blogs of dozens of other people ... most try their best to stay on the topic of their craft, or their favorite authors, or some other interest they have .... but the one thing I've noticed is that each will eventually begin to speak politics.

Most that I have read are definitely leaning towards one path of thinking -- to the left.

Why does blogging seem to draw so many of these politically dichoms? I shouldn't make it sound like liberals are the only ones out there -- they are just the most predominant that I've seen -- you have the extreme right wingers out there too. Those who believed that if you aren't a Christian then you shouldn't hold any political office, those who believe that Obama will fail just because of the color of his skin (it will be because of his weakness as a leader, IMHO) ...

Both parties, all parties, have their nut jobs (the republicans will tell you that it is the followers of Ron Paul or Alan Keyes on their side; the Democrats will tell you it is the followers of Mike Gravel or Howard Dean) ... all parties have their extremists ... and these seem to be the ones who 'drink the kool-aid' and go hog wild with blogging.

What is it about blogging that seems to draw the more 'liberal' amongst us though?

It certainly can not be a feeling of a lack of voice -- after all most papers, radio stations, media outlets, and definitely PBS (which is supposed to be devoid of bias-political or otherwise) are definitely huge cogs in the liberal propaganda machine ....

Perhaps these liberal thinkers are just more easily duped into believing they have no voice? could this be it? Could it be that these people haven't crunched the numbers, counted the stories in print, or ever turned on a Sunday morning news program? how can this be?

I read one blog where the person believed in the 'redistribution of wealth' because it kept the goods being shared with the common worker for a company ... how awful it is that people like Bill Gates has so much money while they do not ... but they have totally ignored any of the blood, sweat, and tears it takes for people to get to this position in their life.

Meanwhile these same people are the ones who sat back and saw nothing wrong with candidates spending tens of millions of dollars on a campaign ... perhaps even hundreds of millions in the case of Obama ... how the people who handed money over to him so freely, had they really believed in what they said, could have done so much more good giving this money to charities such as Good Will, Salvation Army, Red Cross, or Feed My Starving Children ...

It is the little controdictions that people seem to post without noticing that amazes me.

I consider myself an 'independant' ... that is, there are parts of both major political thinking that I like and dislike ... an R or a D next to a name does not automatically get my vote ... I tend to hunt for the answers to my questions, I read between the lines of what politicians say ... that all said - if you've read my blog you know I have a high conservative view, I don't not vote onl Republican but the party seems to be more inline than out.

And my blog will tend to lean to the right ... it is one of the few that I have seen.

What is it about blogs that makes people almost need to speak of politics? Even this posting has taken a decidedly us/them mentality ... I can't help it ... there's a power of the blog that makes resistance futile!

Republishing...

Oh this car could get me behind the wheel of a car -- if only I could get my big butt in there too.

This is a test blog for a feature on 'Republishing' a blog post ... in fact you will see it on my blog twice ... once to show the original post time date ... the other to play with and show how things can be changed.

so don't think your computer is acting up .... this is really supposed to show up twice. On the second, republished post I will put in the full body photo of the car in question ... ymm.

Republishing

Oh this car could get me behind the wheel of a car -- if only I could get my big butt in there too.

This is a test blog for a feature on 'Republishing' a blog post ... in fact you will see it on my blog twice ... once to show the original post time date ... the other to play with and show how things can be changed.

so don't think your computer is acting up .... this is really supposed to show up twice. On the second, republished post I will put in the full body photo of the car in question ... ymm.

shot down

Okay so I was trying to comment on someone's blog to give them a peice of helpful advice ... they were saying they were very busy knitting and almost forgot to get in their weekly blog - hey we've all been there .... I tend to forget to get off that weekly email until the last second.

So I was going to tell her how to set up posts to go out at a later date, so she can set up 'teasers' for her partner, or whatever she wanted (I like to set up the YouTube clips ahead of time myself - they are easy enough to do) .... but her blog wouldn't let me post ... no biggie.

So I figured if I posted here - maybe she will see it .... if not maybe it will help someone else. I know when I first got my blog I was absolutely lost -- so I thought if I could share just a couple of the tips I've learned so far it could help someone else. Of course all I know are Blogger tips, I've got other blogs too, but I haven't learned anything for them yet other than basic html
************************************************
Setting up a post to be delivered to your blog later ~or~ Blog today, Post Later

okay so simply put open a 'new post' and make your blog entry. Try not to make it something too dated (this is a great idea if you are going on vacation too). Do everything that you would normally do, add photos, make links, etc.
BUT instead of hitting either the 'publish post' or 'save now' buttons, you want to click the "Post Options" in the gray bar at the bottom of the dialog box (same place you would put in the labels for your post).

When you click on it you will find three options:
reader comments - if you want people to chat back
Backlinks - if you want people to be able to link to your post
Post date & time - this is the one you want!!

You can change the date and time of your posting ... blogger will store it until later. this means you can set up a post to publish 1 week, 1 month, 4 years down the road (well I think you can go several years down the road - I haven't tried that one yet) .... or you can even make it so you can change the time of day it will post.

Say you want to have a bit of time to check something out before it posts -- but you don't want to simply save it for later, like if you don't know if you are going to have more info or not -- whatever the reason ... just change the time. It runs on the standard clock, AM/PM so its not hard to do. say you want to have something post at 9:30 pm ... simply use the stardard notation and enter it in just as if you were telling someone. just be sure you use capital letters for the AM/PM part othewise its not quite sure what you want.
**********************************
Next time .... how to use this feature to EDIT or REPUBLISH a post.

Crap--

I had a great peice on tea prices worked up for the blog...and then one site I went to shut down my Window.
I figured 'hey no problem, blogger saves drafts every few minutes' and since I had worked on the post for over an hour...yes I wasted an hour of my precious day researching the web about tea...I pulled up my acct. with confidence.
Hit the "edit posts" button and found.....

no peice.

nothing

no draft

no post

nothing

it was all gone!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So apparently, blogger must be having issues with the auto-save

or it doesn't do it automatically if you are posting from the 'send to' button but does if entering in straight from the site.

Well I can't waste anymore time....I've got stuff to do....like figure out a really nice flower pattern for my exchange partner Heidi...I've got so many ideas I don't know which to go with.

Oh and the irony of the situation?
As i sat there writing about tea....I was drinking coffee.
Geez, and I wanted a cup of tea too...but the coffee was already made.

Okay, I've jumped in

Like normal I have jumped in with both feet with out thinking things completely thru---

It is up and Running!!!

Another BLog???

I was thinking of starting another blog....one that people might find more helpful than my general ramblings that have been happening here (on what was supposed to be a crafting blog, maybe I should make a seperate news blog too)....so what would the subject be?

A one year experiment of "1000+ uses for Junk Mail"!

We all get it, we all hate it, and no matter what we do we can't make it go away.

so what to do with all the junk we get....it fills the dump sites, it flies along the side of the road...

so why not put it to use?

It sounds like a novel idea to me....but I wonder if I can/able to come up with 1000 uses....its a challenge.

Mess free pumpkins

I just got turned on to the coolest site!!!!

If you love pumpkins but hate the mess check out The Pumpkin Patch to create a virtual pumpkin/jack-o-lantern.

It is so cool!!! I have got to go see if I can make one.

Check it out!

Twinkle Toes update

well I have inc the number of sts needed for my partners foot....actually I'm not doing the Twinkle Toes pattern, just using it as a guideline....but I should have probably inc the number of cast ons to 12 (total) and worked 2 inc rows before moving onto the inc row/k row combination.

Also I waited until I had 32 sts on the two needles before splitting the stitches onto the 4 needles....I found this gave a better base to the sock and helped to prevent the needles from twisting backward--I actually got stitching and found that one of the needles had twisted around making a very ugly pucker...had I been working a cable st it would have been different, but it would have been very uncomfortable on the bottom of the foot....or on the top of the foot for that matter.

These are going to be some very interesting socks--not only am I using different tachniques for each of them....I did decide to use different needle sizes. This means that one sock will be just that much bulkier than the other...but hopefully not so much as to cause a real problem...I really like the concept.

The only thing the socks will have in common is the yarn, but even it will be slightly different due to pooling effects. I loved the way it ringed around the toe area! I wish it would do the same all the way up, but it has already gone to the single row of a single color...although it does change a little sooner than before so I'm hoping it will start to swirl around.

Now to prevent having to over frog I have inserted a peice of emb floss thru the stitches/loops of the last reg row for the toe---just incase I go on and find that I do not have enough stitches I will be able to stop the unraveling and easily find the stitches to simply pick them up and replace them onto the needles.

If I do not need to frog then I can simply pull the floss out later without having to pick it out--just so long as I did not split the floss at any point without realizing it.

I will more than likely do this every few rounds just to save myself some work--by doing a little more work now---should a problem arise like a dropped needle, a dropped stitch, a picked up stitch, etc.

This technique will come especially handy when I get to the heel flap/gusset.

Because I have never done a toe-up sock before I am anticipating a lot of issues with the "wrap, turns" on the short rows. I will check out knittinghelp.com as well for a video of the procedure but I want a stand by just in case as well.

If I run into too many troubles I can always contact one of these sock groups on Yahoo groups that I belong to:

T_Socks_KAL:Townsend Current Knit A Long
TownsendSocksKnitAlong:T-Knit A Long (I love the current group photo!!)

If you aren't familiar with Jeannie Townsend, that's okay...I didn't know about her until I started looking for sock groups either...if you decide to join check out the groups files---she offers tons of free patterns there, all of her own design! Some of the members have posted their own patterns up there as well. She is very talented, I don't know why she hasn't sold any of her patterns...although she did say once that the purposes of the group was to build internet buddies not make money....so its probably because she just has a really big heart!!

If you are interested she also has a blog:

Just Jeannie

New header photos

ooo....I have some new photos of my main gargoyle to use for my header....I will have to download them from my sd card and get some new ones made up.

Kids and I had a blast finding things for George I, as we have dubbed him, to hold and wear. He is such a great sport to let us do it. I think he really appreciated the vacuming off too--he was pretty thick with dust...being in the corner of the room he tends to get a tad neglected during knitting season.

Got hubby started on a gargoyle collection about 3 years ago {actually he's into dragons, I'm into gargoyles} and we stared naming them after the Weasleys....Fred and Ginger (we didn't know Ginny's real name, and Astair & Rogers were a great team} sit outside guarding the driveway....Percy sits in the bedroom window keeping an eye on the intersection....Bill & Charlie are on top of the piano....the others are scattered around the house--you should have one in each window to keep the evil spirits away you know....if you don't like goyles you should hang small mirrors facing outward. The evil spirit sees its own reflection and is frightened away.

I have fun with my hubby's goyles....as you can see from the photo at the bottom of my blog page....just had to play with them in the snow.

To Blog or Not to Blog

So one of my kids caught me passionately writing on my computer the other day and asked what I was doing....'posting to my blog' I said....'what's a blog?' he asked. I had to stop and think....well its kind of an online diary--no that's not quite it either---its like being able to think outloud but having other people listen in to you---but that's not quite it either.

'why do you write a blog?' he asked next....another stumper. Why? Because I'm a stay at home mom who has a lot to say and no one to say it too....don't get me wrong....I can talk to hubby and usually do to the point of his ignoring half of what I say or he gets annoyed because he missed a funny line on his tv show....and I have had philosophical & political chats with my kids ever since they turned 3 and could talk back {my kids have very firm veiws--you should hear what my 10 yr old has to say about the Maine schools handing out birth control}, but with them I have to be super guarded....try my best to let them make up their own minds, teach them to find the facts and draw their own conclusions instead of running with the pack.

This became relavent this summer when my daughter had to do a video tape for her government summer course....the teacher assigned her to make a campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton--my daughter doesn't like Hillary, but he figured that since she was one of the few girls in class he'd like to see her take on things---when I asked her who some of her other choices were, since she was complaining about getting Hillary, she started naming off all the democrat delegates--I asked her who on the republican side she could have chosen if she had wanted, the answer was Guilliani, he was the only one. That's it--the teacher had decided to bias the class and lean them towards the democratic party. She did the assignment, btw, she did it "man-on-the-street" style....with family. Probably not a good thing since, well I'm more right leaning independent...her dad is more left leaning independent...and while her grandparents are democrats neither of them really like Hillary either....and big brother is a staunch Republican. She did okay, got a good mark for meeting the standards but she felt her grade wasn't as high as it should have/could have been had she been more in line with the teacher's veiws.

Oh wow, I'm off subject again, huh? I was talking about why to blog....or rather why I blog.

Because I have a voice that I don't see being met out there.....I have a common sense that seems to be lacking in this world....an old fashion value system in a new lifestyle....I'm a right leaning pagan/heathen and I'm telling you we are rare!

Well off to do more knitting--I just needed a break before I rip it out again for the fifth time--new pattern and I forgot to stop increasing every row about 5 rows back and I'm dreading pulling it out again. My poor partner....her yarn is going to be worn out before she even gets her socks.

Button crazy

Okay as you can see I have gone button happy now that I've figured it out. Two new buttons are for the BSA and the local GSA council...I highly recommend supporting these two groups in your area if nothing else. They have done more to keep kids out of trouble than any other organization in my mind.

Many brownie troops are teaching their girls to knit...why you may ask? Because they have a campaign going to make socks for the soldiers over seas and for people in elderly care centers. Locally we used to have a program called The Little Red Stocking which contained small gifts inside a red stocking (duh) along with a pair of hand knitted or crocheted mittens and maybe a matching hat if the crafter made one. Now it seems to be a "money only" type of thing, but several of the nursing homes/care centers still like to have the girls donate handmade items such as dishclothes for the residents...especially for those who don't usually get any visitors.

Well I see I have been getting long winded lately so I will cut this post short tonight and get working some more on my partners socks...I just got done translating the pattern to her Hufflepuff colors. I hope she likes it, I tried for a pattern that will take the bumblebee component out of the color scheme.

WHOOO-HOOOOO

Okay Thank you to Everyone on the Hogwarts Swap group that helped me out....I finally...FINALLY got my swap button working proper!

Yippee! It helps when you read the full post and not look at just the codes.

I was using the wrong page element to try to do it in.

Thank you Cliodna Ballycastle and Victoria Gorodok!!

Home Sweet Home

I am so glad to be home. I enjoy going on vacation but it is always nice to get home to my full stash, um, I mean, my own bed.

We had 10 days of pure work work work. We got up on a Friday and the work didn't stop until Monday after the reunion, my mother-in-laws family reunion. I doubt there will ever be a reunion on my FIL side or even on my own parents side....which I think is really sad, but that's the fact of life.

I will try to write more personal stuff over on my yahoo blog because I have some major gossiping to do and this isn't the place to do it, the private blog is.

I did get some stitching accomplished:

I finally finished the first sock for my daughter, now the second sock will have to wait for me to finish my HSS partners socks...I am kind of disappointed with the way they turned out actually. I messed up the pick up stitches on my gusset and now I have some pretty big ventilation holes there...oh well...it is also the first time I've done a tailored sock so I was having some problems with double increases/decreases...I also got interupted so often that I had made one section too long and the other section too short.

So after I take a break from them and work on my partners socks (using a pattern type I'm used to) I will be comtemplating whether I will let the sock stand as it is now or make a new sock ripping out the stitches from the old sock as I go.

But I will wait....I may even wait until after I finish my daughters brownie socks, even though I was planning on them using the same pattern. I did find however that each sock takes one ball of Bernat Sox yarn...or about 1.75 ounces...50 grams....203 yards....186 meters.

so I was right in buying two skeins of yarn in each color. I found some hair binders at walmart while on vacation that will match them wonderfully!

I even had time to knit up something special for my partner using pearle cotton and size 0 needles...I will probably make another for her using even smaller needles but not until the kids start school so I will be nearly uninterupted, and I can put on three pairs of magnifying glasses w/o worry of being picked on.

I feel kind of bad because I came back from vacation and found that there have been some trivia questions going on the HSS2 blog that I've missed and let my house down on...time to pull out those books and keep them close to the computer I see.

Actually it reminds me alot of the trivia contests we used to have on the WB HPbbs...one person would ask a question and then whoever answered it would ask the next one, the moderator would decide the difficulty of each question and award points...only this time only McGonagall will ask the questions. Either way I've found it is helpful to keep the books handy...along with the URL for the HP lexicon!

Well football is coming on in about...ewww, NOW! Got to go.

Go Vikes!! I bleed purple.

Wheew!!

I will have to remember that! If you ever need to delete a posting, go to "Dashboard" click the posts button for the blog in question then simply tell it to delete the entry!

I can not believe I accidentally "blog this"ed to the Swap group....how embarrassing. I'm just glad that I am anal-retentive enough to have wanted to see how it looked to use the Blog This button.

Couldn't find it on this blog but sure as stinky-stuff there it was on the group blog big as life spouting my political views for EVERYONE to see.

Well I think next time I save the BlogThis button for when I only have ONE of the blogs opened--sure wish there had been something on the BlogThis pop-up though that would have told me which blog it was being sent to!

Hogwarts Sock Swap TWO

Hogwarts Sock Swap TWO

Sign ups for First Years begin on
July 14, 2007! Hurry quickly while there are still spaces
(first round was limited to 100 spaces)
Be part of the MOST popular Swap going on the internet!!

Sing up today....make your great-grandmother proud!

Here we go again!

Okay, so here I go delving into the world of blogging again...this is actually blog number 3, well number 4 if you count my YouTube acct. The first is my private blog (invite only) and the other is one about old time radio/movies that my family like to listen to/watch together.

This blog will be dedicated to my crafting.

Actually this particular blog is being started because I am hoping to join an online sock exchange that requires its members to have an open blog account (that is public), but since the other blog on yahoo360 is my "venting" blog, more like a personal diary where I don't want just anyone to read it....I had been thinking about going public and posting crafting stuff with it but then I have just too much personal stuff on there.

So the next best solution was to take advantage of the free blog offered by Google which I have had at my disposal for years and just didn't realize it! How foolish to I feel? So now I have a blog just for my crafting.

So what kind of crafting do I do?
Well let's just say I am known all over the web as Maggie the Crochet-a-Holic (you may have ran across my website at http://dustbunnies.com/crochet.htm) which I have been doing since the young age of 4...in grade school, Motley Elementary decided to have a class in beginning crochet...we kids were allowed to choose 2 classes a quarter as an elective (it was supposed to prepare us for high-school)...so in fourth grade I took the crochet course (figuring I could always use an easy A and it gave me an hour a day when I was actually encouraged to crochet in school....otherwise I was constantly being told to wait for recess time).

You can imagine my surprise when I found the course was being taught by Mrs. Jorgenson...my mother had taught her how to crochet over the summer break and I had even taught her a few things. She instantly recruited me as class helper to show the other kids what to do--well that was a disaster! Get a group of girls together with crochet hooks, yarn, and a ton of gossip and well....very little got done. I guess the thing that really disappointed me was that when I did get time to myself I wasn't allowed to work on the Barbie clothes, the hair ties, the mittens & hats that I wanted to....I had to complete the required class project just like everyone else:

This Gods awful boring belt made three chained ropes (one each of a different color, each chain was to wrap around our waist three times before braiding)...it was so boring for me!!! I had a really tough time completing that project (it was torture for me)

In fact that one project almost made me fail because I just could NOT motivate myself.

Now I'm a mom and teaching my own kids to crochet (boys and girls a like) and what was the first project I gave them? That awful belt! Now that I've grown up I can see where it is the perfect beginners project...in fact you could finish it in a single weekend if you wanted to (and if you pick up on the chain stitch quick enough I bet you could do it in a single day).

I have never posted the "pattern" online (neither blog nor webpage) but if anyone is interested in a simple beginner's project I'd be happy to do so here.

Well that's it for my first post....I am sure I will post more later on.

OH WAIT!!! I forgot to mention what other crafts I do....are you ready?

• crochet
• tatting
• knitting (my latest passion is/are socks)
• cross stitch (stamped and counted)
• liquid embroidery
• machine embroidery
• polymer clay
• wire wrapping
• jewelry making
• decorative cakes (well cupcakes mostly)
• carving (wood & stones)
• painting
• loop knitting
• I'm learning to machine knit (although I'm having some problems)
• scrapbooking
• machine sewing (I love making costumes for my kids...maybe I'll post a few photos later of them)
• rune-carving/casting
• tea blending (okay, many would consider this more and art than craft)

I'm sure I've missed a bunch that I just do without thinking....LOL....but we all know how that goes!